


Penny In The Air

by Sylphidine_Gallimaufry



Series: Tales of Nightmare Dork University [10]
Category: Guardians of Childhood - William Joyce, Nightmare Dork University - Fandom, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Brothers, Dysfunctional Family, Dysfunctional Relationships, Gen, Nightmare Dork University, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2020-01-05 07:26:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18361373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sylphidine_Gallimaufry/pseuds/Sylphidine_Gallimaufry
Summary: The brothers Black solve a mystery that has been troubling them for ages, and have the chance to break old patterns.





	Penny In The Air

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this artwork](http://nightmaredorkarchive.tumblr.com/post/65163027226/itchybrownsweaterart-oh-dang-some-dumb-stuff) on Tumblr, curated over at [ NightmareDorkArchive](http://nightmaredorkarchive.tumblr.com/).

Even as children, the twins differed in how they reacted to departing guests and relatives, and those habits continued into adulthood.

After parting words were said and future get-togethers promised by their parents to aunts, uncles, cousins or family friends [always courteously, but occasionally with an accompanying chill if someone had worn out their welcome], the elder Blacks would head back into their large house as though to barricade themselves in their fortress.

Both Pitch and Piki would stay outside long enough to see the houseguests getting into their cars.  Thereafter, however, they each reacted differently.

As soon as the car doors closed and the motors started, Pitch would turn on his heel and head into the house as fast as he could go without outright breaking into a run.

Piki, on the other hand, would stay on the front path and wave until vehicles pulled out of their parking spaces and disappeared around the curve of the long driveway.  He seemed afraid to stop waving until he could be sure that no one could see him anymore.  In fact, it appeared that he was only barely holding himself in check from running down the driveway after them.

Neither boy could explain his own behaviour to himself, much less to one another.  Their bond and their secret language simply didn’t have the vocabulary to encompass why leave-taking manifested such opposite reactions.  

It was not until a long time later, when each had been abandoned by their respective partners, that the subject was broached.  

Jack had disappeared more than three years ago; Pitchiner had been out of touch for nearly eight months after storming out and making good on his threat to join the Army.  The wounds they left by their absence in the lives of Piki and Pitch were not healed, but less fresh.

It was Tuesday again, which meant Italian cookery night.  Despite his low tolerance for drinking alcohol, Pitch had, to his surprise, found he enjoyed cooking with wine, at least in his brother’s kitchen.  Piki had taught himself to cook in high school, to impress a swain that Pitch couldn’t stand.  It had taken a nervous breakdown on Piki’s part before he finally unbent enough to have the two make and share a meal together. Now it was a weekly ritual.

As Pitch worked on the prep work for  _scaloppine ai funghi,_  moving from stove to sink to make sure he cleaned his utensils as he went along, he saw one of Piki’s neighbors outside the window waving to someone in a car as they drove off.  Idly he commented, “That must be nice to have someone see you off like that.”

Piki replied stiffly as he fetched his Florentine pasta bowls from the pantry, “My, you’ve changed your tune.  You couldn’t WAIT for people to leave, back home.”

“What?!  What are you talking about?”

They bickered all through setting the table, all through plating up food, all the way through clearing up and loading the dishwasher.  Over coffee and dessert, Pitch finally had an insight. “It wasn’t that I wanted them to leave.  I thought if I didn’t SEE them leave, then the goodbyes wouldn’t hurt me.”

Piki digested this, and then murmured, “Whereas I always felt, for some reason, if I didn’t wave my arm off at everyone, I would never see them again.”

There was a moody silence for a few moments, each reflecting on how they had or hadn’t had a chance to say particularly important goodbyes.

Pitch looked over at his brother across the table.  “Promise me you’ll keep waving?”

“If you promise to watch me wave,” replied Piki.

They solemnly clinked the rims of their coffee cups together.


End file.
